Critters on the Castle: Hakuna Matata!

In 2005, all Disney theme parks across the globe participated in “The Happiest Celebration On Earth” in honor of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the original Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. At the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, Cinderella’s Castle was covered with golden effigies of beloved Disney characters – many of them critters! For the next few weeks, I’ll feature some of these each Saturday as my contribution to the Camera Critters photo meme.

Hakuna Matata!

Critics and literary analyst-types have likened aspects of Disney’s 1994 film The Lion King to a number of works, most notably Shakespeare’s Hamlet and a few stories from the Old Testament. The former kind of intrigues me, for that would mean that Pumba and Timon are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern… 😀 I laugh just thinking about it!

Here we see Timon and Pumba leading the young Simba on a merry march around one of the castle turrets. Can’t you just hear them singing “Hakuna Matata” as they amble along? As I recall, the phrase is Swahili, and as the song instructs us, “it means no worries for the rest of your days”. This is Pumba and Timon’s “problem-free philosophy” for life, and they teach it to Simba so that he may forget about his unhappy past.

“Hakuna Matata” was one of three songs from The Lion King that was nominated for an Academy Award; the other two were “Circle of Life” and “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” (which ended up winning).